Pro-environment march unites Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs in Lahore
Lahore (AsiaNews) – More than 300 Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Sikh came together on 21 November for a two-hour march in Lahore ahead of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21), calling on governments to adopt pro-environment policies.
Organised by the Green Save Foundation and Pakistan’s Columban Missionaries, the rally began in front of the Press Club in the Punjab capital. Participants, including nuns, priests and seminarians, carried banners calling for actions to protect nature.
Speaking about the 2015 Paris Climate Conference, Columban Father Liam O' Callaghan said, "Every religion calls for environmental protection. The world leaders should use all their resources to preserve what exists for the future generations".
Haroon Akram Gill, a Muslim environmentalist, plans to go to the conference. Although "The [Paris] tragedy has impacted visa policies, the whole world agrees that these issues need to be addressed no matter what", he told AsiaNews.
"People are getting ill simply by drinking tap water,” he explained. “Three of our cities are among most polluted cities in the world. Pakistan ranks third among top 10 countries affected by climate change but we are at the bottom in the list of countries that are doing nothing about it".
Fr Liam, Justice Peace coordinator in Lahore, organised a petition among rally participants, which said, “We, the undersigned, representatives of the Sikh, Muslim, Hindu and Christian communities in Pakistan, express our serious concern about the ever-worsening situation of global warming and climate change.”
“We strongly urge the people of all nations and their leaders who will gather in late November for the COP21 Paris Climate Summit to sign a treaty which will drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions, in order to keep the global temperature increase below 1.50 Celsius”.
In its 10 November statement, the Columban General Council also called for "just and binding agreements" at COP 21.
“The council joins . . . Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato si’, faith leaders and millions of people around the world in calling for just and legally binding agreements by governments to limit human-induced carbon emissions which are changing Earth's climate".
Speaking at the United Nations Office in Nairobi, Pope Francis yesterday said that “It would be sad, and I dare say even catastrophic, were particular interests” to prevent “a global and transformational agreement” on climate change.
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